Growing businesses need enterprise communication apps like Yammer to help their employees connect and engage with one another.
The lynchpin of a successful business is proper communication between the employees. But it happens all too often that due to corporate hierarchy and silos, the flow of information between people on various levels is sub-optimal. It leads to many communication gaps between the employees, important memos falling through the cracks, and critical problems taking too long to get resolved.
The result is a substantial decrease in the efficiency of an organization, and an enterprise collaboration app like Yammer is the perfect tool to fix this problem.
According to Gartner, 80% of the workers are using collaboration and communication tools like Yammer in 2021, as opposed to only half of them in 2019.
The COVID-19 saw a 44% surge in the usage of tools like Yammer. In the post-covid era where more and more companies are switching to hybrid working cultures, having an enterprise platform where employees can talk, share, connect, engage, and work together to solve problems is a necessity.
Many companies choose to develop their own communication and collaboration solutions customized to match their needs. At the same time, the rest decide to opt for one of the popular apps in the market.
Whichever way you choose to go, there is no denying that enterprise communication apps are an essential tool in any company’s toolbox.
And in this blog, we will talk about the key benefits of developing an enterprise communication app like Yammer.
But before that, let’s talk about-
What is Yammer?
The elevator pitch for Yammer is that it’s Facebook but for organizations.
It is a social networking service designed for enterprise communication. It is a single platform for colleagues to talk, share problems, post polls, announcements, ask questions, track tasks, receive notifications, manage their calendar, etc.
In a nutshell, everything a company can want to streamline internal communication is provided by Yammer.
Launched in 2008, Yammer was bought by Microsoft in 2012. Microsoft then added Yammer to its Office 365 suite in 2014 and since then, it has exploded in terms of popularity. Today, over 80% of fortune 500 companies use Yammer for their internal communication and collaboration.
It is simply the best enterprise-grade tool for colleagues to collaborate and engage.
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What are some of the unique Yammer features?
Yammer is a service built to act as a single ecosystem of features using which companies can communicate internally. To that end, Yammer offers a slew of social networking and collaboration features that allow teams separated by great distances to work together.
Given below is a list of some of the most valuable features that Yammer offers to companies.
1. Home Feeds
Like any good social networking service worth its sale, Yammer gives you a home feed that does a great job of informing you of everything that is going on across the enterprise.
The Home Feed shows you what your colleagues, leadership teams, and people in other departments are talking about. It shows you all the relevant conversations taking place in the communities you are a part of, colleagues you’re close to, and the trending events across the company.
2. Communities
Yammer communities allow you to build groups of people inside the company who share the same focus as you. People working in the same department, people working on the same projects, or people who enjoy coffee and like to talk about it, there is no limit to what communities you can make.
Much like any other group on a social networking service, Yammer communities have an administrator who can customize it, add people to it, view community insights, etc. One very unique thing about these communities is that you might find yourself in a community with people you didn’t even know existed in your company. That is what’s so great about using Yammer—It is a tool that endorses inclusiveness across a company.
3. Discussions, Polls, Praise, Announcements, Questions
Yammer allows users to post questions across communities, thus getting quicker answers. In big companies, not knowing which question should be asked to whom is a big blocker, and by allowing users to post open questions like this, Yammer makes getting answers a lot more streamlined than sending emails.
As a community leader, you can post announcements to people on a need-to-know basis. When you make an announcement, people in that particular community will be notified about it and see it in their Home Feed.
Polls and praising people are also great ways to get people to interact and keep things interesting.
4. Inbox
The Inbox feature allows you to sort, prioritize, and manage the conversations that you find most important. From how you get notified when you get a new message in any of the conversations to changing general inbox settings, Yammer gives you a lot of tools to play around with.
From the inbox, you can also:
- Review Yammer activity that’s relevant
- Read through conversations using split view
- Sort messages as read and unread
- Follow conversations using mobile inbox
5. Live Events
Yammer allows you to organize live events for the people in your Yammer network that they can join from their mobile devices and computers. It offers built-in discussions before, during, and after the live event. Yammer allows for 10,000 people to join a live event and provides a video recording of the event for those who couldn’t join the live event.
Some other tools that make Yammer such a vital tool for enterprises are:
- Community Insights
- Topics and Hashtags
- Files
- External Network & Guests
- Mark best answer to the question
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Top benefits of developing enterprise communication apps like Yammer
They improve enterprise communication
In large and decentralized working environments where people are working from various parts of the world, communication can be a big challenge.
Emails streaming back and forth between departments and people are not only an outdated way of finding information and communication, but they are also very time-consuming.
Platforms like Yammer provide you a place for your entire enterprise to communicate and engage. This means people can post open questions and get quick resolutions to their problems. Apps like Yammer also bring colleagues closer and instill a sense of camaraderie.
They increase efficiency
A company is most efficient when information flows smoothly between departments, and there are no knowledge gaps. When people are not running around trying to find the answer to a question or figuring out whom to contact for a blocker, the efficiency of a company can skyrocket.
Big companies are often divided into smaller departments, and when questions and problems need to flow between them, it gets tricky to locate the person who has a solution or the required answer.
Furthermore, it allows employees to share files, manage calendars, and post surveys, all in one place, which further enhances the efficiency of an organization.
They make information gathering and problem solving faster
One key benefit of apps like Yammer is that they eliminate the hassle of sending multiple emails just to find one answer. Employees can get a quicker response than an email by putting up questions, problems, and queries in communities. They won't first have to hunt the person who can help them.
If the person shares a community with them or if the community leader or anyone in the community knows the best person to answer that question, they can add him to the community or ask him the question on the other person's behalf.
They offer are a platform to showcase achievements
Keeping employees motivated is a significant and tricky task. Usually, enterprises are so big that stuff like achievements, new innovations, new deals made, etc., doesn't really reach everybody.
But with apps like Yammer, people can post these achievements in their communities, and everybody can see them.
For instance, if the sales team closes a big deal or a development team just achieved a milestone, this information builds morale and motivates people to work harder when posted on enterprise collaboration and communication apps.
They help employees stay connected and entertained
Strictly formal environments don't fit modern work culture. So any app that a company uses for internal communication should have elements of fun and creativity in it. For instance, Yammer allows people to send GIFs, post jokes, and have fun. How you set up Yammer depends on what type of culture you try to bring to an office. And people from other offices can also join in and leave comments, thus getting a taste of the culture in that office.
They bring transparency to an organization
When all the work is being done on one platform, everybody is informed about everything that goes on in an office or a network. This means that there are no walls, and people are aware of everything. This helps people in keeping track of productivity. Community leaders can post their goals for everybody, and then they get effortless to track because of the open chat format.
Are you looking to develop an app like Yammer for your company?
Yammer is an excellent tool for big companies with thousands of employees and many offices. And while it can work just as well for smaller companies, developing an app like Yammer of their own is the best way for them to approach enhanced enterprise communication.
Every company has different needs when it comes to communication and inter-departmental collaboration. Based on their organizational structures and their goals, the choice of enterprise communication platform will also differ.
Furthermore, not every company needs the extra horsepower that apps like Yammer provide. So it’s best for them to get a custom app built for their internal communication.
It allows companies to have the features they need in their app without paying for all the extra features that are of no use to you and your employees.
However, developing an app like Yammer on your own will be costly and time-consuming. You will have to hire an in-house development team and arrange for all the infrastructure required for the development. Furthermore, you will be responsible for the maintenance of the app and its security.
Another approach to enterprise communication app development is that you hire a development firm like Matellio to develop it for you.
With decades of experience, Matellio provides digitization services for companies big and small. We follow the Agile methodology of development, and that allows us to build our solutions incrementally. Our customer-centric approach puts our clients behind the steering wheel, and our highly skilled project managers always keep them in the loop. With the help of our deep talent pool, Matellio has a solution for every IT and development problem.
If you want to build an enterprise communication app like Yammer, reach out to us and get a free 30 min consultation.
